Apprenticeship Experience – Frances

8 February 2023
Apprentice , apprentices , apprenticeship , training

This National Apprenticeship Week, one of our apprentices has shared her experience and advice for anyone considering a career in engineering. What does it take to start out on an apprenticeship journey and what’s it really like?

Frances is one of seven apprentices at Langstone Engineering and started her four-year apprenticeship in September of 2022. She’s the first in her family to develop a career in engineering, which stems from her love of aviation.

“I’ve always been interested in planes and that led me to do work experience with a locally-based aviation company. This also gave me an insight into how an engineering company like this would work. I didn’t know at that point where it might lead,” she said.

Training

She went to PETA , a leading training provider in Hampshire which provides apprenticeship programmes in conjunction with business and industry.

“I was looking for the chance to develop my practical skills. I now work in an environment which helps me do that. The fact that our engineering can help to make things like cars and planes work was really appealing. An inspection role came up as part of the apprenticeship at Langstone Engineering and I went for it,” she explained.

Experience

Frances attends college one day a week and now works as part of the skilled precision engineering team at Langstone Engineering. Even though she has only been in her apprenticeship for a few months, she’s developed the skills and confidence to program and operate a CNC CMM without support, delivering complex component quality reports to customer requirements.

But she’s already planning her next steps.

Career Progression

“The support and training I’m getting has definitely helped my confidence. I’m finding out about other aspects of engineering too. My apprenticeship is opening doors and the chance to feel I’m getting a great start to my career. I’m getting to do more complex work and that’s satisfying. I’d like to learn about the different software, tooling and programming next,” she added.

Would you like to find out more about an apprenticeship and career opportunities with Langstone Engineering in Portsmouth? Please send an email with the subject ‘Apprenticeship’ to recruitment@ptiltd.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.